Michael Talent
An Exalted: The Awakening Character. Basic Information Name: "Michael Talent" (a pseudonym, as far as anyone can tell through regular channels) Concept: combat prodigy Player: AdamantGlassOrchid Contact Info AIM Email: ultrafennec@gmail.com Motivation: Create the world's most elite combat force Exalt Type: Solar Caste: Dawn Age: 25 Anima: A stylized sword superimposed over an equally stylized shield that seems to draw in energy from the air around it, both made of pale white-golden light and wielded by a ghostly templar of terrifying mien. History Michael Talent has been called a lot of things, and most of them aren't fit for polite conversation, but he's okay with that. Given how many lives on all sides of the law/crime/good/bad spectrum he's disrupted and otherwise ruined, he has to be. Luckily, he hasn't used his real name in years, so it's hard for the average person to come and find him, even in the internet age. Born to a set of dysfunctional and often abusive (to each other) parents whom he does not care to recall the names of in 1986, "Michael" grew up as an outsider of sorts, even in his own life. While his parents were careful to never involve him in their frequently physical disputes, and they certainly made sure he had a decent if not ever great life growing up, he couldn't really do anything but watch their spiral into addiction and death as he gained years. Mostly, they did it to forget their fights over their child: where should he go to school, what values to instill in him, what would he do with his life, why was he always getting into fights at school? It didn't take much of his parent's fights for Michael to decide that whatever values they wanted to instill in him weren't worth learning. And come his 16th year, he was able to find out what he wanted to do on his own, because he came home from yet another visit to a guidance counselor's office post-beatdown (not a scratch on him, as usual) to find his parents had finally gone too far, and killed each other off. Rather than get shuffled through the foster system or spend 2 years as a ward to the state, Michael packed up what he could carry, grabbed the keys to the beat up old family Oldsmobile, and fled into life. He lied about his age and name, joined the military, stuck with it for two years, got tired of the lousy pay, joined a criminal syndicate, got tired of the constant threat of being betrayed for two-bit table scraps of money after another two years, stole a bunch of money from said syndicate, and met Josef Ladstetter and his small band of mercenaries while broke and traveling through the Swiss Alps on a nice train at precisely the moment said band of mercenaries were under fire from the bodyguards of the rich industrialist they were trying to kill. Michael joined up with the group after demonstrating his skill by climbing outside the train and back in through a window or three to flank the bodyguards. One dead industrialist later, and one mysteriously empty train arriving at its stop later, Michael Talent was an official member of the Blackjack PMC. Four years later, Michael was leading the company himself after displaying an immense capacity for warfare in all its forms, and a head for strategy that, while it couldn't have won Vietnam for the US, would have done a damn sight better than what happened. The company's ranks had grown fourfold, Josef had retired to the mansion he always wanted, and Diamond Squad was pinned down in another mountain pass on December 1st, 2010, and people were dying all around when Michael, angry that his people were going to die and refusing to accept that, stupidly charged the ranks of his enemy force. The men and women of Blackjack attribute his survival to part skill, but also the panicked retreat on the part of the enemy when a giant sword and shield wielded by a ghostly knight erupted out of Michael's body and began miming cutting people apart as he shot them down one by one, with perfect precision. One year later, and Blackjack has been busy as all hell, but they've done things no other armed forces unit could ever boast of doing, to the point that most who've heard the stories pass them off as drunken tall tales or half-remembered snippets from the latest action thriller from Hollywood. Anyone who's met the Blackjacks and their commander knows that the stories don't even tell the half of it. Appearance and Personality Michael is a physically imposing man despite being having a statistically average height of six feet. Nearly ten years of warfare and physical training will do that to people. His medium-short length dark black hair remains somewhat spiky and certainly disheveled no matter what he does to it, typically swooped back out of his way and kept there with sunglasses or combat goggles. Angular eyes contrast a strong Roman nose and full lips, his features more chiseled than fine. Michael keeps in top physical shape, though he doesn't follow any standard PT routine anymore so much as an eclectic blend of physical regimens that "work for him." As a result he's toned and certainly "cut" though without the straight up mass found in larger men or ones in more grueling regimens. Still, it would be hard to mistake him for anything other than a soldier, though some have told him he looks like a gymnast or, oddly enough, a dancer. In terms of dress, he wears whatever's necessary for wherever he's at, but it's always high-quality, well-made stuff, whether that's combat fatigues, dress suits, tuxedos, or manwhore jeans for clubbing. Personality-wise Michael can seem standoffish at first, though that's not normally his intention. He just tends to size people up as potential opponents when he first meets them. It's a reflex that his life of crime and warfare has drilled into him, and not something he can really stop doing without lots of unlearning. People who get past this will find the man warm if not always welcoming, cordial if not always polite, and strong-spoken without being gruff. Beyond "no-nonsense," some of it just flies over Michael's head, despite his odd habit of framing tough questions with lines of obscure poetry. While not an avid net-aficionado, Michael does recognize some rather obscure pop culture from around the world, while some mainstream stuff blindsides him. When he's not busy doing murder for hire of sorts (or not-murder for hire), Michael keeps himself entertained with just about anything at hand, though tends to avoid modern wargames of most sorts because "I already do that all day! Why do I wanna keep doing it at home?" Attributes Abilities Favored/caste abilities should be indicated by adding ' Boldface Markup ' around the ability and it's numeral dot value. (Ex. If Archery is favored or in-caste, you would place three apostrophes around it like thus: ' Archery 4 ' and it will appear as Archery 4 ) DAWN ZENITH TWILIGHT NIGHT ECLIPSE 'Specialties' Linguistics-Poetry 1 Drive-Pursuit 1 Marksmanship-Automatics 1 Athletics-Acrobatics 1 Languages Please keep track of the languages you know here. Specialization in Linguistics adds an area of a language that you can pass for a native as. (Ex: You're not a native speaker of High Realm, you take a dot of Linguistics and learn High Realm, and you then take a Specialization in High Realm and choose to sound as if you're a native from the Imperial City, you would write High Realm (Imperial City). If you're from the Isle, but not any particular important city, you would write High Realm (The Blessed Isle), and so forth and so on. When in doubt, ask the ST.) *Native Language: English *Language 1: Mandarin Chinese *Language 2: Arabic *Language 3: *Language 4: *Language 5: Backgrounds Backing 3: Blackjack PMC, a highly trained and successful mercenary company that Michael found his way to leading despite his young age. : -''Followers 2: The 20 other members of the company. A.K.A.- the Blackjacks. In an amusing bit of bonding, each of them has picked a card and suit to call each other by. : -''Contacts ''2: Aside from the Blackjacks themselves, this represents information brokers and repeat clients who've cultivated a good business relationship with the company. : -''Resources ''4 (2 BP spent to increase from 2): The Blackjacks aren't just any mercenary company. They're an elite force, all of whom have years of experience at the top of their field aside from Michael himself, who makes up for it with raw talent and skill. As such, the Blackjacks don't take on "pud" jobs. Their skill comes at a price that only well-paying and typically wealthy clients can afford, whether that's bodyguarding VIPs, corporate espionage/sabotage, eliminating a kingpin's rivals, deniable government wetwork ops, or true warfare, you hire the Blackjacks when the job gets labeled "impossible" for everyone else. You want a regular job done, there's always Blackwater. In the meantime, the Blackjacks will be getting the pay they deserve for accomplishing the impossible, especially during their busy 2011 year after Michael Exalted. '''Manse 2': The Danger Room, Blackjack's bleeding edge training facility in the southwest US, is built over the site of an old Native American ritual site, a fact Michael only learned after the facility was finished. Perhaps stranger, one day Michael found an odd earth-toned sphere resting on a small dais in the central control room that he could swear wasn't there the day before. So far he's attributed it to a forgetful mind and some strange feng shui used in arranging the place, but the more he carries the stone around the more he wonders. Familiar 3: A Shishi, ''or Guardian Lion. Details forthcoming! Artifacts This should be the full list of your artifacts, if any, and you may include the artifact's full write-up. Artifacts are very major, and should have their own sub-heading entries. Artifacts should also link to their pages in Category:Panoply using In-Wiki Link markup. Manses The Danger Room is Blackjack's advanced tech-capable training center in the deserts of the Southwestern US, smack dab on the Arizona/Nevada border, up in that little corner near Utah and Colorado. Aside from standard "dummy" setups, the Danger Room is also capable of fielding some powerful robotic adversaries complete with multiple combat subroutines and equipped with a rudimentary AI courtesy of a certain Japanese tech firm (they were very thankful to get their CEO back from those kidnappers. At least, that's what they'll tell you when he's within earshot.) The various training grounds inside and outside the compound itself are modular in design, so what is one week the interior of a yacht under terrorist assault may be a facsimile of a drug lord's terraced mountain hideaway the next week. The only limits are space and available pieces to "build" with. The Manse produces a Sphere of Balance, which Michael keeps on his person, though he has no idea what it actually does. Charms Here you should list your Charms. Please format them using Sub-Heading Mark-up by the related Ability (or Attribute, for you darn Lunars), and use * Bullet Lists for the individual Charm. More asterisks give you sub-bullets and sub-sub bullets, so you may freely represent trees of charms with indented bullets. Please begin each entry with the name of the charm in question, then a slash, the cost, another slash and the page (if applicable), and (if the Charm comes from a book other than Exalted 2nd Edition) the book it came from. (Custom Charms should simply have “Custom” in place of the Page entry, and no Book entry at all.) Charms Template General Charms Charm Details For the Ink Monkies Charms, since not everyone has PoH's Ultimate Collection document and such. '''Angle-Tracing Edge' allows Michael to determine the exact range and position of characters targeting him with attacks (actually making attacks against him, not just aiming or something) in Step 2 of combat resolution, and at Essence 3+ he can distinguish between multiple different attackers based on their attack's residual Essence signature or something. Basically, he knows where people are attacking him from, all the time, and you can't confuse him by switching positions or using multiple similar attackers. Flashing Draw Mastery provides Michael one automatic success to all of his Join Battle rolls. In addition, he can ready reflexively any Thrown weapon upon rolling Join Battle, and any Thrown attacks he makes during his first acting tick post-Join Battle are at Speed 3. This Charm is Martial-Ready with Archery, Martial Arts, and Melee, effectively meaning Michael gains its benefits no matter what combat ability he's using. Panoptic Fusion Discipline is pretty much Bullet Time. All Michael's attacks are enhanced as though he'd been Aiming for three actions (and he can't Aim the normal way to gain more dice, but see below), and his DVs are 1 higher versus all physical attacks of which he is aware. At Essence 3+, he can Aim normally under the effects of the Charm, but instead of gaining more Aim dice, the already provided Aim dice are converted into one success per tick of Aiming, maxing out at the normal level. Spells List any spells your character may have here, arranged by Circle and listed in the same style as Charms. If you don't plan to take any spells on the character, you may delete this section. Terrestrial Circle Celestial Circle Solar Circle Equipment This section should list the equipment your character routinely uses and carries with them. Attention should be paid to weapons and armor, whether mundane or magical; please reproduce their statistics in full, but omit any the bulk of background text for artifacts and such. (Mundane equipment that has a special background should have a brief explanation.) Remember that you need to insert either two line breaks by using the Enter key on your keyboard, or HTML line break markup. Mundane Equipment 'Armor' Michael wears the simple but effective DragonSkin SOV-2000 concealable vest underneath his clothing and/or uniform. It's not the greatest protection, and he used to wear a full external vest, but sometime during the last year he became capable of dodging bullets, and decided that he could probably downgrade to concealed protection for "oh, SHIT!" moments. 'Weapons' While most of Michael's armaments are of the high-quality, practically made sort he does have a particular affectation for weapons that are not normally frontline combat guns. His skill ensures that he can put them to use in a highly effective manner, and it wouldn't be the first time someone's wondered why he walks into warzones with "sub-optimal" gear. His typical response? "Any weapon is as optimal as you make it." Despite this, Michael does own an actual assault rifle, the H&K G36C, and uses it on jobs where maintaining a longer range is a necessity. Note that the listed weapons are merely Michael's personal preference of armament. Being the leader-owner-operator of the Blackjack PMC he can access the varied armament of his company if necessary for a job. Accessories: night-capable dot sight or LAM mounted most times, suppressor kept on person when on assignment. Michael uses 40 box magazines almost exclusively. Accessories: Owns a Laser Aiming Module for the gun, almost never uses it. Accessories: As this is Michael's go-to "range" weapon of sorts, he keeps an ACOG scope mounted on the top rail, and usually mounts a foregrip on the front underside rail, as the G36C's underbarrel rail is too short to mount many conventional underslung weapons. As with the MP7, the weapon's suppressor is kept on person in case of necessity. Michael prefers to keep around 10 clips of ammunition for each of his weapons in the armory (stored unloaded like a smart person), typically carrying a max of two extra clips plus one loaded on the job for his main and sidearm. Michael keeps the armory stocked with just about any accessory one can use for just about any gun the company possesses, and typically outfits his personal weapons with sights, LAMs, suppressors, and underslung attachments as necessary for the battlefield. 'Vehicle (Personal)' Non-Combat Gear On the subject of the car, Michael's put another $10,000 into it for various detailing and automotive work like hacking the ECU and silly affectations like a colorshift paintjob and overly dramatic vinyls depicting heroic mythological figures. The Merc keeps the typical assortment of portable tech on his person most times, switching out for tough-use versions when on the job. He also maintains an extensive home-security system (aside from his Familiar), and is looking into home-integrated tech for seamless awesomeness, and "green" technologies to counteract all the nasty carbons his job releases. Magical Equipment Vital Information Willpower 6/6 Willpower Virtues Please mark your Primary Virtue clearly, and delinate your Virtues as numbers; with a seperate number to indicate the number of times that Virtue has been channeled for bonus die on a roll. (Ex, if you had Compassion as your primary, had 4 dots of Compassion and had Channeled it for four bonus dice twice, you would write Compassion (Primary) 2/4). Compassion 2/2 Conviction '''2/2 '''Temperance 3/3 Valor (Primary) 3/3 Limit 0/10 Virtue Flaw Michael suffers from Foolhardy Contempt. When Limit Breaking he changes from the tactically sound team-player of his usual manner into something resembling a puffed up action movie hero, abandoning sense to charge in headlong without thinking of companions or consequences, confident in his ability to survive and murder all those other guys. Combat Statistics Defense Values Please note your Defense Values here. For your convenience, the formula for determining your DV have been provided. Please indicate your natural (without magic other than that on your armor and/or shield or weapon) DV first, with your full DV, enhanced by Charms you will typically use as a prelude to battle, enhancements from Hearthstones, or other sources, afterwards, in Parenthesis. (Ex, if your natural Parry DV is 5, and you have a Hearthstone which grants a blanket +1 to Parry DV, you would write it as Parry DV 5(6) Dodge DV 6 Parry DV Unarmed Parry DV 4 (Punch) or 2 (Kick) Melee Parry DV (with Perfect Combat Knife) 4 Mental Dodge DV 5 Mental Parry DV = Presence: 2! Soak Please delineate your Soak values numerically, and in parenthesis after your nominal Soak values, the value of Soak that would apply against a Piercing attack. (Ex. If your Natural Lethal Soak before armor is 3 (thus indication that you probably have Stamina 3), and your armor adds 6 points of Lethal soak, you would write Lethal Soak 9(6) . Remember: Natural Soak, unless specifically allowed, does not apply against Aggrevated soak, so in the example above, you would only write Aggravated Soak 6(3) - a very good reason not to be hit by anything capable of dealing Aggravated damage!) Bashing Soak 10(7) Lethal Soak 7(4) Aggravated Soak 5(2) Ballistic Soak 8(4) Health 6/7 For brief reference (so it will appear in the table of contents), list your health levels in the Health entry as your current health levels versus your temporary health levels (Ex, if you had no applications of the Ox-Body Charm and one box of wound, you would list 6/7.) For completion, track your Health levels here – a bracketed box which is empty is undamaged, one with a B has been filled with a Bashing wound, one with an L has been filled with a Lethal wound, and one with an A has been filled with an Aggravated wound. Add additional boxes as necessary, remember to preserve line break formatting. Remember to add Dying boxes equal to your Stamina. *~0 X *~1 [ ] [ ] *~2 [ ] [ ] *~4 [ ] *Incapacitated [ ] *Dying Essence 3 Please mark your Essence score above, as well as your Motes as a pair of numerical current versus total values, and track your Motes of Essence below in more detail. (Ex, if you have Essence 3, 18 points of Personal pool, and 36 points of Peripheral pool, 8 of which you have Committed to an artifact, and have spent no Motes recently, you would write Essence 3; 18/18 28/36). Remember to track under Committed where the motes Committed are going, and where they come from. *Personal: 15/15 *Peripheral: 37/37 *Committed: **Comitted Breakdown: Other Information Use the space provided to track additional information about your character. Intimacies Use this space to track your character's Intimacies. Experience 16/68 Use this space to track your character's available and total Experience (and mark it above in terms of available versus total.) Bonus Point Expenditure 6 BP spent on Ability increases (Favored/Caste) 1 BP spent on Willpower (sixth dot) 2 BP spent on Resources (increased Backing-based background to 4 from 2) 9 BP spent on Charms (3 Favored/Caste Charms) Experience Point Expenditure 52/59 spent. 6 XP spent on Temperance (from 2 to 3) 8 XP spent on Thrown Charm (Favored) - Flashing Draw Mastery 6 XP spent on raising Awareness from 3 to 4 (Un-Favored) 5 XP spent on buying 1st dot of Presence, then raising to 2 (Un-Favored) 3 XP spent on third dot of Familiar. 8 XP spent on Panoptic Fusion Discipline (Awareness Charm (Favored)) 16 XP spent on attaining Essence 3. Various OOC Notes Made the G36C basically the same as the M4 because overall they're essentially the same thing, barring the extra point of accuracy for H&K's high quality and the shortened forebarrel making it kinda difficult to mount grenade launchers and Masterkeys and what not. Category:Exalted: The Awakening